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Georgi Karakhanyan
Georgi Karakhanyan is an Armenian-American mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight division. Background Georgi was born in Moscow to Armenian parents, but is now an American citizen. He was raised in Moscow, Russia. He was introduced to martial arts by his father at the age of six (Georgi’s father has a black belt third dan in Karate Do Shotokan and he’s also a SAMBO expert). Georgi was just eight years old when he first fought in a full contact martial arts competition. He began training in martial arts at a young age, but found his true love in soccer. He competed at both the amateur and professional levels in Russia, Spain and U.S. before coming to the United States and settling in Riverside, California. Soccer Georgi’s dreams completely changed after the 1994 World Cup. Inspired by world soccer legends Ronaldo, Romario, Roberto Baggio and Georghe Hagi, Georgi made a strong decision to become a professional soccer player. He played in world class clubs TORPEDO Moscow and SPARTAK Moscow. After Georgi’s family moved to Tarragona, Spain he continued practicing soccer with the professional club Gimnàstic de Tarragona (reserve team of FC BARCELONA). Georgi continued to pursue his passion for soccer after his family moved to the United States. He played with the distinguished soccer club, the San Diego Nomads, a U.S. Olympic Development Program for players under the age of 18. He also trained and played for the professional indoor soccer club, the San Diego Sockers MISL. MMA career After his soccer career, he began his MMA career while living and training at United Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Instructor, Rommel Dunbar in Riverside, California. Georgi made his first professional MMA debut on October 13, 2006 just after six months of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Although Georgi never dreamt about cage fighting, wining his very first fight against a veteran MMA fighter in the KOTC, gave him enormous confidence and belief that he is on the right path which fueled his desire to give MMA all he had. He joined the Bellator Fighting Championship to take part in their season 2 Featherweight tournament. He won his first round bout against Bao Quach at Bellator 13 via a devastating knee, knocking Quach unconscious. His semi-final bout was against highly acclimated wrestler Joe Warren at Bellator 18. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. Bellator Fighting Championship In 2009, Georgi signed with Bellator Fighting Championships and was part of the eight- man tournament in 2010 and 2011. In the first round of the 2010 tournament, he took on the veteran fighter Bao Quach and beat him with a flying knee knockout within the first 4 minutes In the semifinals, Georgi faced Greko-Roman wrestling champion Joe Warren(Ranked #8 in the world 2010-2011) and lost to him in a unanimous decision. Joe Warren ended up winning the tournament and becoming the 145 lb Bellator champion. In 2011, Georgi was back on the tournament and faced Patricio Freire(Ranked #9 in the world 2010-2011) in the first round and lost to him via TKO in the third round. Patricio would also end up winning the tournament. Personal life Georgi is a devoted Vegetarian. He believes in Vegetarianism and gives it a lot of credit for his athletic strength. He has the following tattoos: writing "only god can judge me", in Russian, in his chest; an Armenian Cross on his right rib; and his last name in Armenian on the left rib. He currently is an instructor at MILLENNIA in Rancho Cucamonga, CA and is constantly training at Millennia MMA to get better.